"Welcome to level 14, ladies and gentlemen," Jack narrated with gusto. "The next stop on our tour will be the west elevator, site of many a fascinating cargo transfer and, oh, a little crime scene. And we're walking..."

Gibbs scowled at the general's carefree attitude, wondering how a man with such apparent disregard for -- convention, anyway, if not regulation -- had garnered such a high position. Most posts of this type were political appointments but Jack O'Neill was anything but a political, if Gibbs was any judge of character.

"And here we are!" Jack called chirpily, waving the straggling team over. "Agent Gibbs, he's all yours."

"Duck," Gibbs directed, nodding towards the body in the elevator. "Kate, photos and sketches. Tony, bag and tag."

"Hey, Gibbs!" a cheerful voice spoke up. "You forgetting someone?"

"No, Abs," Gibbs smiled. "General!" Jack stepped forward from where he had been watching the proceedings with SG-1. "General, do you have a laboratory facility for Ms. Sciuto to set up shop?"

"Carter!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Show Ms. Sciuto your lab," Jack ordered evenly. "She'll be moving in with you for a while."

"Yes, sir," Sam nodded. She smiled at Abby. "Follow me."

"Awesome!" Abby enthused. "So what do you do?"

"I'm a theoretical astrophysicist..."

As their voices faded down the hall, Gibbs turned back to Ducky.

"Time of death?"

"Within the last 24 hours," Ducky sighed, heaving himself up from the crouched position he was in.

"Killed in the elevator?"

"Oh, yes. There's far too much blood spatter for this too be a secondary site," Ducky crouched closer to the body, examining small details.

"Cause?"

"You know better than that, Jethro," Ducky admonished. "I won't know anything for sure until I get him on the table. However, based on the most immediate evidence, a preliminary conclusion of gunshot wound to the back of the head seems reasonable." Pointing with a gloved hand, Ducky murmured, "The hair is singed; the weapon was at point-blank range. You know," he looked up with his patented 'story time' expression, "this reminds me altogether too much of a case I once worked in the Middle East. Yes, that young man had incurred the wrath of a local chieftain --"

"Duck!" Gibbs cut him off. "Bottom line."

"Jethro," Ducky grew serious, "this was an execution."

There was a pause as everyone considered the implications of the statement. Daniel coughed slightly and Jack frowned along with Gibbs. Kate winced as she snapped photos, the click of the shutter suddenly deafening in the heavy silence.

"Boss!" Tony called, breaking the moment. "I've got the bullet." All eyes were on Tony as he gently extracted the slug from the wall of the elevator. The hole was maybe six inches off the floor, Gibbs noted, and extremely deep. Tony could only barely grip it with the tweezers.

"Looks like a nine-mil," Tony commented, dropping the bloody and distorted bullet into an evidence bag.

"Get it to Abby," Gibbs ordered.

"Right. Um," Tony looked around, "where would that be, exactly?"

"I will take you to ColonelCarter's laboratory, AgentDiNozzo," Teal'c offered, turning and striding down a corridor. Tony, slightly apprehensive, jogged after the big man.

"Kate, you done?"

"Yeah," she answered, snapping off one last photo.

"Duck?"

"Indeed, Jethro. It's time for us to make this poor man more comfortable."

"You folks need some wheels?" Jack asked, rolling a stretcher into view. He grinned at the surprised look on Kate and Ducky's faces, though Gibbs' knowing smile was a disappointing reaction. That man seemed to have two expressions: omniscient or pissed.

-----------------

"So," Tony panted between breaths, "your name is...?"

"Teal'c."

"Teal'c," Tony tried. It wasn't that hard to say, really, just unusual. Well, duh, DiNozzo, he chided himself. The guy's an alien. "You, um, you look really...human...for an...alien..." Tony stopped, kicking himself mentally.

"Indeed. My people were originally taken from among the Tau'ri and genetically engineered to be enslaved by the goa'uld." Teal'c didn't even break stride.

Tony stopped briefly in the hallway, staring at the large alien with his jaw working overtime. After a few seconds of no words coming out, though, he ran to catch up with Teal'c, head shaking in disbelief.

"No way!" A familiar voice suddenly squealed. Tony sighed in relief; they had arrived.

"I'm serious," replied the less-familiar voice of Colonel Carter. Tony grinned. Less familiar now, perhaps, but he would like to make it a lot more familiar... "We had no choice, really. Apophis was on his way and we had to ensure Tanith couldn't get him the information. I mean, what could we have done?"

Tony and Teal'c entered Carter's lab and found Abby staring -- not quite open-mouthed, but close -- as Sam recounted her fantastic tale.

"Tony!" Abby greeted enthusiastically when she caught sight of him. "You won't believe some of the stuff these guys have done! Sam blew up a sun!"

"Impressive," Tony raised an eyebrow, turning to Sam and switching on the charm.

Sam rolled her eyes. Not another one... "Did you need something?" she asked, not unfriendly but certainly businesslike.

"Yeah, just brought this bullet down to Abby," he smiled, tossing the bag vaguely in Abby's direction. She caught it, barely, and shook her head at Tony's behavior. "So, you blew up a sun, hm?"

-----------------

"Agent Todd," Daniel called softly. Kate turned around. "I can show you where to set up a dark room."

"Oh, that'd be great," Kate answered, grabbing the camera and following him.

"So," he started, after a few moments of walking in silence. "You're Grace's mother?"

"Um, yes," Kate answered, surprised. "You know, I didn't figure General O'Neill for one to talk much about his family."

"Oh, he's not," Daniel assured her. "But when he was gone for a month on 'personal business'...well, we managed to get it out of him. You must understand, Jack doesn't often take leave -- and when he does, it's invariably to go fishing in Minnesota. When he said he was going to Maryland and wouldn't tell us why, we knew something was up."

"Your team seems very close to the general," Kate commented.

"Well, he used to be our commander," Daniel explained. "We were all SG-1 for seven years. Jack's only been the general for a little over a year."

"I see," Kate nodded, slightly envious. Seven years as a team? She could hardly imagine.

-----------------

"Jethro, could you help me with him?" Ducky grunted, struggling with the heavy colonel.

"Dr. Mallard, let me," Jack offered, taking Ducky's place at the corpse's head while Gibbs handled the feet. Gibbs gave him a look that, to Jack's great surprise, might have been gratitude.

"Thank you, General," Ducky said, moving out of the elevator so he could direct the two men. "All right, just roll him over carefully..."

Jack, gripping the shoulders, slowly maneuvered the colonel's torso while Gibbs gently tugged on his legs. They were trying to get him on his back so that he would be more easily transferable to the stretcher. About halfway to their goal, Jack suddenly jumped backwards, releasing his hold on the colonel's shoulders.

"Holy --" he exclaimed loudly. "That's...disturbing."

"Indeed," Ducky agreed. Jack blinked; it sounded so weird coming from anyone but his Jaffa. "The bullet apparently lost enough velocity to leave a rather large exit wound."

"Ya think?" Jack retorted sarcastically. "The man has no face."

"If you need to leave..." Gibbs suggested.

"I'm fine," Jack groused, bothered that Gibbs thought he was that green. "Just startled me. You telling me you're used to seeing faceless corpses?"

Gibbs did not respond, except to take hold of the legs again and stare pointedly at Jack. Jack shook his head and grabbed the shoulders again. This Gibbs was a piece of work...and yet, Jack couldn't help respecting him just a little. He obviously cared about his team; he just wasn't very expressive about it.